Recommended book for Photoshop beginner?

[flyinion]

So I've stumbled around in CS3 enough to do some minor tweaking and learned a few things by searching for how to use tools like unsharp mask but I'd like to learn some of the more advanced stuff. Anyway have a recommended book for CS3? Right now I'm eyeing the "Dummies" book on Amazon. I looked at the table of contents and it seems like it hits the major stuff....layers, masks, filters, etc.

EDIT: oops looks like what I am looking at is Photoshop CS3 All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies. Apparently a bit more detail in it than a "plain" "Dummies" book.

[mjs1973]

Check out Scott Kelby's books. He writes in a very clear and simple manner and his books are super easy to follow.

http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Photosho...1678644&sr=8-2

[flyinion]

Thanks, I found that one after the Dummies one and it seemed a better choice considering I'm using PS for photography. I figured I'd hold off asking until I saw if I got responses I checked out the table of contents and it seems like it definitely might be a better choice since it's photography oriented and deals with RAW-finished product type of flow.

[flyinion]

Hmm looks like I've got things figured out I think. I'll pick up that book you recommended. I saw some reviews saying you might struggle a bit if you don't know layers, which I dealt with a bit on Fireworks MX a long time ago but not much more than the tutorials it had. I just found out though at work I have access to a Photoshop 7 training course online as part of our paid applications training package. It includes things like layers so I'm going to work through the course and that should prep me for anything used in the book that's not covered at a beginner level hopefully

[Skyman]

adobe has some pretty good online tutorials that are free and I have found that the adobe classroom in a book series is fairly helpful. The advantage of that book is that it comes with a disc of files for you to work with whilst going through the tutorials.